LEUTHEN, a village of Prussian Silesia, io m. W. of Breslau, memorable as the scene of Frederick the Great's victory over the Austrians on December 5, 1757. The high road from Breslau to Luben crosses the marshy Schweidnitz Water at Lissa, and immediately enters the rolling country about Neumarkt. Leuthen itself stands some 4,00o paces south of the road, and a similar distance south again lies Sagschlitz, while Nypern, on the northern edge of the hill country, is 5,000 paces from the road. On Fred erick's approach the Austrians took up a line of battle resting on the two last-named villages. Their whole position was strongly garrisoned and protected by obstacles, and their artillery was numerous though of light calibre. A strong outpost of Saxon cavalry was in Borne to the westward. Frederick had the previous day surprised the Austrian batteries at Neumarkt, and his Prus sians, 33,00o to the enemy's 82,000, moved towards Borne and Leuthen early on the 5th. The Saxon outpost was rushed at in the morning mist, and, covered by their advanced guard on the heights beyond, the Prussians wheeled to their right. Prince Charles of Lorraine, the Austrian commander-in-chief, on Leuthen Church tower, could make nothing of Frederick's movements, and the commander of his right wing (Lucchesi) sent him message after message from Nypem and Gocklerwitz asking for help, which was eventually despatched. But the real blow was to fall on the left under Nadasdy. While the Austrian commander was thus wasting time, the Prussians were marching against Nadasdy in two columns, which preserved their distances with an exactitude which has excited the wonder of modern generations of soldiers; at the due place they wheeled into line of battle obliquely to the Austrian front, and in one great echelon,—the cavalry of the right wing foremost, and that of the left "refused,"—Frederick ad vanced on Sagschiltz. Nadasdy, surprised, put a bold face on the
matter and made a good defence, but he was speedily routed, and, as the Prussians advanced, battalion after battalion was rolled up towards Leuthen until the Austrians faced almost due south. The fighting in Leuthen itself was furious; the Austrians stood, in places, ion deep, but the disciplined valour of the Prussians carried the village. For a moment the victory was endangered when Lucchesi came down upon the Prussian left wing from the north, but Driesen's cavalry, till then "refused," charged him in flank and scattered his troopers in wild rout. This stroke ended the battle. The retreat on Breslau became a rout almost com parable to that of Waterloo, and Prince Charles rallied, in Bo hemia, barely 37,000 out of his 82,00o. Ten thousand Austrians were left on the field, 21,000 taken prisoners (besides 17,00o in Breslau a little later), with 116 cannon. The Prussian loss in all was under 5.50o.
See Carlyle, Frederick, bk. xviii. cap. x. ; V. 011ech, Friedrich der Grosse von Kolin bis Leuthen (Berlin, i858) ; Kutzen, Schlacht bei Leuthen (Breslau, 1851) ; and bibliography under SEVEN YEARS' WAR.